Toronto Earthquake

In honor of the G20 conference which is closing down our downtown, we just had a small earthquake in Toronto. I’ve never been in an earthquake before and was wondering what was happening. Not large enough to disrupt internet service, but a definite shake.

I remember a small earthquake centred near Carlisle on the border between England and Scotland around New Year probably 35 years ago now. There was a classic cartoon in The Daily Mail at the time showing a couple of tartan clad highlanders sitting enyoying a New Year dram with their ‘but ‘n ben’ (small house) lying in rubble around them. One of the highlanders said: “Hell’s teeth Angus! Put some mair watter in it next time!”

I was also in Puerto La Cruz in Venezuela on 9th July 1997 when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck about 100 miles away near Cumana. About 100 people were killed. 80 of them were children who died when their school collapsed. It was the last day of term before their holidays.

I was due east of Parry Sound, in Ahmic Harbor. No shaking there either. Thinking back 50 years, I can’t ever remember a quake of any nature in the lakes region, except maybe when they were blasting for the new super highway.

5.5 here in Ottawa and it really shook things up.
It felt like sustained blasting at a nearby building site if you know what I mean (35-45 seconds I would estimate).
I was on a conference call with someone in Toronto so it was kind of cool to hear him relay its arrival shortly afterward.

Just enough to lul me to sleep. We get about 20 to 30 a week here in So Cal USA. Just had a 5.7 last week though most you can’t feel but you hear them when the house makes noise. We usually get 5 or 6 a year and once a month in the 4 range. That 7.2 we had was about 120 mile from my home and you could watch the concrete bend, it was 35 to 40 seconds. When they go that long I do worry because they tend to get bigger if they keep going. We are only 60 miles from the San Andreas Fault that is due any time for a 7 to 8 (the big one).

The incident really happened very suddenly, when I was working in the fields behind the house. I am grateful to still get a chance to be saved from disaster. BUt I found an amazing video of this in action at http://june23earthquake.com

While I acknowledge that the quake was felt in Toronto, it never ceases to amaze me how Torontonians try to take ownership of everything that happens in Canada. As stated above, the quake was centred near the Quebec/Ontario border north of Ottawa.

After living in the GTA for the past few years, I was actually shocked that I didn’t hear people talking about the Toronto Olympics this past winter.

For the record, this isn’t directed specifically at Steve, just at Torontonians in general who treat Toronto as the “centre of the universe” as perfectly stated in the first comment.